Abstract
Partial pressure of CO2 in surface sea water (pCO2) was measured continuously off Sanriku in May, 1997 by a new pCO2 measurement system. We have examined the relation of pCO2 to physical factors such as temperature, salinity and density, chemical and biological factors such as nutrients and carbonate system and chlorophylla. In the Kuroshio region pCO2 was not correlated to physical, chemical and biological factors in the range of 260 to 290 μatom. In transition water (Tr1) between Kuroshio and the Oyashio second branch, pCO2 was weakly correlated to physical factors and strongly correlated to nutrients. In transition water (Tr2) between the Oyashio first and second branches, pCO2 was highly correlated to temperature (SD: 10.9 μatom) and salinity (SD: 8.6 μatom) and also to nutrients. In transition water (Tr1+Tr2), pCO2 was highly multivariately correlated to temperature (T), salinity (S), chlorophylla (CH) (or nitrate+nitrite (N)) as follows, pCO2(μatom)= 10.8×T(°C)+27.7×S+2.57CH(μg/1) −769, R2= 0.86, SD = 20.9, or pCO2(μatom)= 3.9×T(°C)+25.5×S+16.0NO3(μM) −686, R2= 0.99, SD = 6.4. Moreover, pCO2 was predicted by only two factors, one physical (S) and the other chemical/biological (N) as follows: pCO2 (μatom)=32.8×S+19.4N−908, R2=0.97, SD=8.4. The pH measured at 25°C was well correlated with normalized pCO2 at a fixed temperature. In the Oyashio region pCO2 was decreased to 160 μatom, probably because of spring bloom, but was not correlated linearly to chlorophylla. The results obtained showed the possibility of estimating pCO2 of the Oyashio and transition regions in May by satellite remote sensing of SST, but the problem of estimation of pCO2 in Kuroshio water remains to be solved.
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Sasaki, K., Ono, T., Tanaka, K. et al. Variation of the partial pressure of CO2 in surface water from Kuroshio to Oyashio and the relation between environmental factors and the partial pressure at 144°E off Sanriku, northwestern North Pacific in May, 1997. J Oceanogr 54, 593–603 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02742461
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02742461